1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to a valve assembly, especially for a vibration damper, including a valve housing, an actuator for driving an adjustable valve, and an electronic circuit for controlling the actuator.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known from DE 199 50 177 A1that a vibration damper used as part of a chassis can be equipped with electronic components. The system configuration determines the complexity of the circuit arrangement. The specification does not provide any detailed information on how to implement the design in practice.
DE 44 27 559 A1pertains to a vibration damper with variable damping force, to the valve assembly of which an acceleration sensor has been attached. The acceleration sensor is installed in a separate, disk-like housing, which covers the rear surface of an adjustable valve.
So that the valve assembly of an adjustable valve can be adjusted optimally, it is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,975, for example, that a housing cap can be used, which allows access to the adjustable valve, e.g., to an adjusting screw, which can be used to adjust a spring which acts on an armature, or to a guide element, which can be used to adjust the magnetic flux inside a magnetic circuit.
It is impossible to use a disk-like housing on a valve assembly according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,975, because, if this were done, there would no longer be any effective way to adjust the valve assembly.
An alternative could be to mount the circuit arrangement in a separate housing on the vibration damper. This approach, however, is associated with the problem of how to route the cables to the valve assembly.